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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Cardiovascular Endocrinology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1510910

Circulating Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) and the risk of Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events (MACE) in the UK biobank

Provisionally accepted
Wanwan Sun Wanwan Sun 1*Ruilang Lin Ruilang Lin 2Yiming Li Yiming Li 1Ye Yao Ye Yao 2Bin Lu Bin Lu 3Yongfu Yu Yongfu Yu 2
  • 1 Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
  • 2 Fudan University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
  • 3 Huadong Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    To investigate the relationship between circulating branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) and the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in a national population-based cohort study.UK Biobank, a prospective study involving 22 recruitment centers across the United Kingdom. For this analysis, we included 266,840 participants from the UK Biobank who had available BCAA data and no history of MACE at baseline. Cox regression analysis was conducted to evaluate these associations, adjusting for potential confounders.During a 13.80±0.83-year follow-up, 52,598 participants experienced MACE, with the incidence of MACE increasing progressively across quintiles of circulating BCAAs, isoleucine, leucine, and valine. Overall, the fifth quintile exhibited a 7-12% higher MACE risk compared to the second quintile. In males, BCAAs were not associated with MACE risk. However, increased risks were observed for isoleucine (8-12% in higher quintiles), leucine (9% in the first quintle and 6% in the fifth quintile), and valine (8% in the first quintile). In females, higher quintiles of BCAAs, isoleucine, leucine, and valine were associated with increased MACE risk, ranging from 9% to 12%. Among participants under 65y, higher quintiles of BCAAs, isoleucine, and leucine were associated with increased MACE risk, while valine showed no significant association. No association was found in participants aged 65 and older. These analyses were adjusted for multiple potential confounders.Generally, higher levels of BCAAs, isoleucine, leucine, and valine were associated with an increased risk of MACE, except in participants older than 65. Additionally, in males, the lowest quintiles of leucine and valine were also associated with a increased risk of MACE.

    Keywords: Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), UK Biobank, Isoleucine, Leucine, Valine

    Received: 14 Oct 2024; Accepted: 21 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Sun, Lin, Li, Yao, Lu and Yu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Wanwan Sun, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.